Uttar Pradesh Congress leaders want at least 25 seats

New Delhi, Feb 25 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh Congress leaders say they will not settle for less than 25 seats in the state if an alliance takes place with the Samajwadi Party for the Lok Sabha elections. Ahead of a meeting with party chief Sonia Gandhi, Uttar Pradesh Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi told reporters here: “We are prepared to contest all the 80 seats (in the state), but if an alliance is to happen, we will not accept anything less than 25 seats.”

She was accompanied by state Congress legislature party leader Pramod Tiwari and Delhi legislator Pervez Hashmi.

Joshi said they were meeting Gandhi to discuss the alliance possibilities with the Samajwadi Party.

The two parties have been holding seat sharing talks for over two months but have not yet been able to arrive at a consensus, amidst speculations that the alliance might fall through.

Meanwhile, former Rajya Sabha member of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Isham Singh and former Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Satish Sharma from Uttar Pradesh joined the Congress Wednesday. Singh had quit the BSP in 2006 and Sharma had left the BJP much earlier.